action

Etymology

From Middle English accion, from Old French action, from Latin āctiō (“act of doing or making”), from āctus, perfect passive participle of agō (“do, act”), + action suffix -iō; see act.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæk.ʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækʃən
• Hyphenation: ac‧tion

Noun

action (countable and uncountable, plural actions)

1. Something done so as to accomplish a purpose.
2. A way of motion or functioning.

   Knead bread with a rocking action.

3. Fast-paced activity.

   a movie full of exciting action

4. A mechanism; a moving part or assembly.

   a rifle action

5. (music): The mechanism, that is the set of moving mechanical parts, of a keyboard instrument, like a piano, which transfers the motion of the key to the sound-making device.^[1]
6. (slang) sexual intercourse.

   She gave him some action.

7. The distance separating the strings and the fretboard on the guitar.
8. (military) Combat.

   He saw some action in the Korean War.

9. (law) A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).
10. (mathematics) A mapping from a pairing of mathematical objects to one of them, respecting their individual structures. The pairing is typically a Cartesian product or a tensor product. The object that is not part of the output is said to act on the other object. In any given context, action is used as an abbreviation for a more fully named notion, like group action or left group action.
11. The event or connected series of events, either real or imaginary, forming the subject of a play, poem, or other composition; the unfolding of the drama of events.
12. (art, painting and sculpture) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
13. (bowling) spin put on the bowling ball.
14. (business, obsolete, a Gallicism) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.
    • Burke

      The Euripus of funds and actions.

Interjection

action

1. Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually an act or scene of a theatric performance.

   The director yelled ‘Action!’ before the camera started rolling.

Verb

action (third-person singular simple present actions, present participle actioning, simple past and past participle actioned)

1. (transitive, management) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
   • 2004, Ros Jay, Richard Templar, “Fast thinking: project”, in Fast Thinking Manager's Manual‎, Second edition edition, Pearson Education, →ISBN, Fast Thinking Leader, page 276:

     ‘Here, give me the minutes of Monday’s meeting. I’ll action your points for you while you get on and sort out the open day.’

   • 2005, Fritz Liebreich, “The physical confrontation: interception and diversion policies in theory and practice”, in Britain's Navel and Political Reaction to the Illegal Immigration of Jews to Palestine, 1945-1948‎, Routledge, →ISBN, page 196:

     Violent reactions from the Jewish authorities were expected and difficulties of actioning the new guidelines were foreseen.

   • 2007, Great Britain: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, “Case study: 11257”, in Tax Credits: Getting it wrong? 5th report session 2006-2007‎, The Stationery Office, →ISBN, Chapter 2: Changes and developments since June 2005, page 26:

     HMRC said that one reason they had not actioned her appeal was because she had said in her appeal form ‘I am appealing against the overpayment for childcare for 2003-04, 2004-05’, thus implying she was disputing her ‘overpayment’.

2. (transitive, chiefly archaic) To initiate a legal action against someone.
   • 1856, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Attaché: or Sam Slick in England‎, New Revised Edition edition, Stringer & Townsend, Chapter XLVII: The Horse Stealer; or All Trades Have Tricks But Our Own, page 270:

     ‘I have no business to settle with you—arrest me, Sir, at your peril and I’ll action you in law for false imprisonment.’

   • 1844, Robert Mackenzie Daniel, The Grave Digger: A novel by the author of The Scottish Heiress‎, volume I, T. C. Newby, Chapter IX: How the Grave-differ entertained a lady, pages 189-190:

     “Scrip threatened me at first with an action for slander—he spoke of actions to the wrong man though—action! no, no no. I should have actioned him—ha! ha! [...]”

   • 1871, Michael Shermer, quoting Alfred Russell Wallace, In Darwin’s shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russell Wallace‎, Oxford University Press US, published 2002, →ISBN, Chapter 10. Heretic Personality, page 261:

     I have actioned him for Libel, but he won’t plead, and says he will make himself bankrupt & won’t pay a penny.

   • 1996, Darryl Mark Ogier, “Discipline: Enforcement”, in Reformation and Society in Guernsey‎, Boydell & Brewer, →ISBN, Part Two: The Calvinist Regime, page 148:

     In 1589 the Court went so far as to effect a reconciliation between Michel le Petevin and his wife after she actioned him for ill treatment and adultery with their chambermaid.

Further reading

• action in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• action in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• Catino, actino-, atonic, cation

Etymology

Old French acciun, aucion, etymologically reconstructed in Middle French to resemble the Latin actiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ak.sjɔ̃/

• audio

  (file)

• Homophone: axion

Noun

action f (plural actions)

1. action, act
2. campaign

   une action promotionnelle

   a promotional campaign

3. stock, share

   une action de capitalisation

   a capitalisation share

4. (Switzerland) a special offer

Further reading

• “action” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• cation, contai

Etymology

Old French acciun, aucion, etymologically reconstructed to resemble the Latin actiō.

Noun

action f (plural actions)

1. action; act

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /akˈʃən/

Noun

action (plural actions)

1. action

Verb

action (third-person singular present actions, present participle actionin, past actiont, past participle actiont)

1. to action

References

• Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.